This work looks at child prostitution in 20th-century England, tracing the roots of a contemporary problem which has been the subject of increased publicity and concern. It uncovers a mass of new evidence to indicate the extent of the phenomenon from the late 19th century to the present day, arguing that child prostitution is a significant aspect of child abuse, and one of the clearest ways in which ""deviant"" groups can be conceived of as both victims and threats.;The picture of child prostitution emerging from this book is one of exclusion from mainstream society and the law, and remoteness from the agencies set up to help young people in trouble which were often reluctant to accept the realities of child prostitution. Child prostitutes were not wholly victims, and motivations to enter prostitution have included, amongst other things, the desire for a level of income they are unable to obtain in other ways, and which provided a means of independence. Yet the evidence provided in this book indicate that the circumstances which have led children into prostitution since the early 1900s amount, at worst, to physical or psychological abuse or neglect, and at best as the result of limited choice.